According to National Assembly delegates, improving the quality of investment preparation work as well as the role and responsibility of leaders when approving investment policies and deciding on project investment will contribute to promoting project implementation progress and disbursement of public investment capital.
Morning of November 5, continue the program At the 8th session, the National Assembly discussed in the hall the implementation of the state budget in 2024, the state budget estimate, and the central budget allocation plan in 2025.
Investment project preparation is still a weak link.
Giving comments at the meeting, delegate Trieu Quang Huy (Lang Son delegation) paid special attention to the quality of project investment preparation.
The delegate cited the Government's report saying that investment project preparation is still a weak link, leading to capital waiting for projects, completing investment procedures, prolonging capital allocation time and affecting disbursement progress, as well as the efficiency of capital use. public investment
The main reason is that the role of leaders in some central and local agencies has not been fully promoted; the capacity to plan investment preparation and prepare project implementation is still limited.
Some legal regulations are not yet synchronous, unified, feasible, and do not meet practical requirements; some shortcomings in mechanisms and policies have been discovered but have been slow to be amended and supplemented...
At this session, the National Assembly will discuss and decide to amend a number of relevant laws to remove difficulties and shortcomings in the implementation of medium-term and annual public investment plans in general and investment preparation work in particular.
Therefore, delegates suggested that the list of projects when included in the capital plan should clarify the suitability of the project with the planning affecting the implementation of that project, and the issue of site clearance affecting the implementation of the project.
The person who approves the project investment policy and decides on project investment must be responsible for the project he/she has approved.
“It is necessary to research, arrange funds and guide ministries, branches and localities to manage and use funds in investment preparation work according to the provisions of the law on budget investment to ensure that the investment plan for the following year can be proactively implemented right from the beginning of the year,” the delegate suggested.
Sharing the same view, delegate Ta Van Ha (Quang Nam delegation) said that due to poor preparation of plans and the poor quality of medium-term public investment plans, investment preparation for projects was still poor, leading to slow progress and causing many difficulties.
Delegates proposed that in the coming time, in addition to implementing the 2025 public investment plan, the Government needs to soon deploy preparations for the 2026-2030 public investment plan.
Many regular expenditures have not been fully allocated according to the budget.
Regarding regular expenditure, delegate Nguyen Quang Huan (Binh Duong Delegation) said that according to the audit report, currently, regular expenditure allocation is still low, with 2/3 of regular expenditure not yet allocated, which is holding back the economic stimulus tools.
Explaining this issue, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc stated that this is a practical issue that requires the upcoming allocation of budget estimates as well as the arrangement of development investment spending plans and related issues to be innovated in form and implementation methods.
Due to the National Assembly's regulations in the law, there must be a complete package of procedures to be allocated. For example, in the basic construction investment project, public investment has not yet had an approved investment project, so the Ministry of Planning and Investment cannot advise the Government and the National Assembly on allocation.
The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance emphasized that regular expenditures must comply with the principle of having approved estimates and unit prices. In the coming time, the Government will innovate regular and investment expenditures.
Accordingly, after the National Assembly approves, it will be assigned to units, provinces and ministries and branches at once. At that time, ministries, branches and provinces will allocate according to regulations and the Ministry of Finance will be responsible for checking whether the implementation is correct or not.
Regarding regular spending savings, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance said that savings are mainly in purchasing activities, business trips, conferences, upgrading and repairing, small purchases, etc.; while there are almost no savings in salary and salary allowances. Regular spending on salary accounts for 45%, the remaining 65% is other expenses.
To reduce regular expenditures, the Government has directed ministries, branches and units to reduce business travel expenses and expenditures at conferences and seminars... This year, the Government has also presented to the National Assembly that the whole country has saved about 7,000 billion VND in regular expenditures.
According to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc, the Government Standing Committee is currently directing the saving of public investment expenditures. Previously, in 2009-2011, the Government had done this, and now it has been restarted, specifically saving from estimated norms to construction norms, saving in preservation, construction, transportation, etc. This issue will be included in the bidding documents for organizing bidding.
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